Elections & Promises

Yes, the municipal elections are just four months away and our politicians are warming up for the Great Porkies Olympics for the coming campaign.

They’re not all ‘pants-on-fire grade’ some are just soundbites that they know will never go anywhere, which is arguably the case of the PP Member of Parliament and ex-Mayor of Motril, Carlos Rojas.

Sr. Carlos, accompanied by the PP candidate for Mayor, Luisa Mª Garcia Chamorro, said that he was going to champion a rail connection between Granada and Motril and convince the EU that it was a spiffing idea.

The idea is to be debated in the House of Parliament in Madrid, he explained, and none other than the Party Chairwoman, Dolors Montserrat, is going to propose it before her peers.

But leaving aside the ephemeral promises of election-crazed politicians, Motril Port deserves a rail connection because it is growing and fast, thanks to around 20-million euros in infrastructure improvements. In fact it has had the largest shipping increase last year up to September 2018 compared to any other port in Spain: 21,5% more than the rest.

No bad, eh?

So, does Motril deserve to be included in the European, Trans-Andalusian Rail artery? Yep, it does. The trick is convincing Brussels that Motril is a logistics hub within the Red Transeuropea de Transportes. But Sr. Rojas is not only proposing a Motril – Granada, link, but also a Motril – Almería and Motril – Málaga one, too.

Motril has the space to expand, which is envisaged in the PUE1 (Port Industrial Estate) covering around a million square metres, says MP Carlos Rojas. Importantly, that sort of infrastructure means lots of new jobs in the local work market.

Motril is also strategically placed for shipping traffic to and from Melilla which is directly south of Motril – plain, straight sailing.

Is such a rail connection with Granada an engineering nightmare because of the difference in height above sea level? Nah! The existing line between Málaga port and Antequera is 1.62% whilst the difference between Motril and Granada is 1.53% – if the former works, so will the latter.

Regardless of which party proposes this rail connection, the fact is that everybody in Granada is behind it, from political parties to the business sectors. So, whilst we might be sceptical that it will happen in our lifetimes, it certainly deserves to happen.